Since plans were first proposed in February 2009 for the new Bristol City Stadium, it has been a story of ups and downs.

Bristol City Football Club has been based at Ashton Gate Stadium for more than 100 years and many people felt that for Bristol City Football Club to progress, as it deserved to, it needed a larger ground.

The site at Ashton Vale was chosen carefully to comply with the wishes of the people of Bristol and took into account the fact that for continuity it needed to be close to the historic site of Ashton Gate.

The new stadium will have seating for 30,000 spectators and is nearer to the significant A370 access road. Its main environmental feature, though, is that the location (earmarked early in 2002 in a pre-feasibility study) is ground that was previously used as land-fill and therefore of no use for residential purposes. This means that the new stadium will not only bring much needed revenue to South Bristol but will also tidy up a previously unattractive piece of land.

A year after the first plans were released for public consultation, Bristol City Council gave the go ahead and, although not everyone approves, it is generally agreed that the new Bristol City stadium will be an asset not only to the football club but to Bristol in general.

Despite some opposition, Bristol City Football Club was given approval to sell the Ashton Gate site to Sainsbury’s, gaining the funds they needed to build the new stadium. This brings the proposed opening of the new stadium in 2013 into the realms of reality and soon Bristol City Football Club will have a splendid new home.